"One Red Flower: Letters From 'Nam" is a new show playing at the
Village Theatre in Issaquah. It is pertinent and poignant. It is made up
mostly of music, but it's not exactly a musical. More, it's a revue with
characters and a theme.

THEATER REVIEW

ONE RED FLOWER: LETTERS FROM 'NAM

CREATOR: Paris BarclayWHERE: Village
Theatre First Stage, 120 Front St. N., IssaquahWHEN:
Through Nov. 17TICKETS: $16-$20,
half-price a half hour before curtain, discounts for groups of
10 or more; 425-392-2202 or
www.villagetheatre.org

Most of the characters are U.S. infantrymen in the Vietnam War. The
theme is a reminder that war is people killing people. Though they may be
disposed of thoughtlessly, the killers and the killed are not essentially
disposable.

The poignancy of "One Red Flower" comes from human detail. The soldiers
are seen together and individually. At one time or another, they are
enthusiastic, devastated, horny, bitter, rowdy, angry, happy, hopeful and
distraught. Then they die young -- some of them.

If there is anything like a plot in "One Red Flower," it has to do with
questions: "Who will die? Who will die next? Who will survive? In what
condition?"

The pertinence of "One Red Flower" is, of course, its meditation on an
old U.S. war at a time when the United States is contemplating a new war.
The focus is not on political strategizing, polls or propaganda. Occupying
center stage is inevitable reality. Young men kill young men and hapless
civilians.

"One Red Flower" is the work of Paris Barclay, a Hollywood writer,
director, composer and lyricist who is best known for his direction of
"ER," "NYPD Blue" and "The West Wing." Barclay took his inspiration for
"One Red Flower" from "Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam," an
anthology of writings by American soldiers. Some of the lyrics are taken
directly from letters; others are Barclay's adaptations of the soldiers'
words.

Barclay's songs, with a couple of exceptions, have utilitarian
melodies. The lyrics are sometimes insubstantial and repetitious. The
exceptional songs are explosive numbers in which lust, high spirits or
anger propels intensity.

Barclay and director Ron OJ Parson have assembled an excellent cast.
Six men and one woman create vivid portraits. Singing, dancing and acting
all help in the depiction of details. Like all war stories, "One Red
Flower" features characters whose differences provide sparks and whose
bonding provides emotion.

Robbie Swift, as a company clerk who volunteers for combat duty,
creates the show's highest high point in a wild evocation of the joys of
marijuana. As a gung-ho soldier from the South, Levi Kreis gives an
impassioned sense of a fighter who is desperate to believe in what he is
fighting for. In a much lighter mood, Kreis is funny as a grunt in love
with a prostitute.

As a prisoner demoralized into suicidal depression, Josh Keaton traces
a soldier's emotional demise. T.E. Russell plays a lieutenant who juggles
personal ambition, loyalty to his men and existential despair. The
necessary antiwar stance is taken by Kevin Noonchester. He plays a medic
who can find no justification whatever for the day-after-day waking
nightmare that his life becomes. Noonchester gives distance and balance --
and he has a beautiful voice.

The shakiest element of "One Red Flower" is its purported centerpiece,
the relationship between a helicopter pilot captain and his mother. Marta
DuBois plays the mother, who comes off as a generic white, middle-class
American woman to whom things happen.

As the son, David Burnham is attractive in an underwear-model way. He
acts, sings and dances with such ferocity that he becomes detached from
his character and his character's relationships. What with the languid
body displays and the fierce emoting, poignancy is diminished rather than
fostered.

This Village Theatre production of "One Red Flower" is what is called a
"workshop production." Barclay is tinkering with the show, figuring out
what works and what doesn't work. Even in an unfinished state, it is clear
that "One Red Flower" functions best as a powerful and multifaceted
meditation on war. And it doesn't work at all as a showcase for a
charismatic star.